"Emissions from battery recycler Exide pose a 'chronic hazard' to more than 250,000 people in surrounding areas, air district officials say. Risks include neurological changes in children."

"More than 250,000 people living in a broad swath of eastern Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Huntington Park and other southeast cities face a "chronic hazard" from exposure to arsenic emissions from a Vernon battery recycler, according to air district officials.

Toxic emissions from the Exide Technologies plant have the potential to create "neurological changes, specifically a decrease in intellectual function in children," said Jean Ospital, health effects officer for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

He stressed that there is no evidence indicating such a large number of people have been harmed; the health risk assessment shows only that they could be."